Bulgaria

1956-07-29

79 Vassil Levski Blvd, Sofia, 1000, Bulgaria; Dubai, United Arab Emirates

440210366, Passport; 385950465, Passport; 647475973, National ID No.

Vassil Kroumov Bojkov (Bojkov), a Bulgarian businessman and oligarch, has bribed government officials on several occasions.  These officials include a current political leader and the former Chairman of the now-abolished State Commission on Gambling (SCG).  Bojkov also planned to provide a sum of money to a former Bulgarian official and a Bulgarian politician earlier this year to help Bojkov create a channel for Russian political leaders to influence Bulgarian government officials. Bojkov is currently in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he successfully evaded Bulgarian extradition on a number of charges levied in 2020, including leading an organized crime group, coercion, attempted bribery of an official, and tax evasion.  In its investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria found that in February 2018, Bojkov paid the then-Chair of the SCG 10,000 Bulgarian Lev (approximately $6,220) on a daily basis to revoke Bojkov’s competitors’ gambling licenses.  Following this massive bribery scheme, the Chair of the SCG resigned, was arrested, and the SCG was abolished.  There remains an international warrant for Bojkov’s arrest as his influence continues in Bulgaria.  In advance of the July 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary elections, Bojkov registered a political party that will run candidates in the aforementioned elections to target Bulgarian politicians and officials. Bojkov is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a person who has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0208

2021-06-02

US

Executive Order 13818 - Global Magnitsky

OFAC-horizontal

Human Rights

Blocking Property, Suspending Entry

• https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/topic/5441

On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption. On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017. In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat. OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.

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